Justin Liam O’Brien (b. 1991) is an American figurative painter based in New York, where he has exhibited extensively. In carefully staged tableaux he paints mostly male, soft-edged figures, a visual language rooted in his background in digital art and 3D animation. Drawing on his experience as a queer millennial, he depicts encounters full of physical touch yet charged with loneliness, self-doubt and a longing for connection.
Justin Liam O’Brien (b. 1991, USA) is a New York–based figurative painter. His paintings depict social interactions that emphasise physical touch yet evoke feelings of loneliness and ennui. He portrays his mostly male subjects as soft-edged figures within carefully staged tableaux, a visual language shaped by his technical background in digital art and 3D animation. Drawing on his own experience as a queer millennial in an age of heightened anxiety, he creates scenes that are nonetheless universally relatable. Each quiet moment is charged with tension and pathos, touching on inadequacy, self-doubt and the longing for connection. O’Brien has exhibited extensively in New York, and his work reflects a widespread sense of social isolation, in the city and across the globe. Alongside paintings on canvas he makes intimate coloured-pencil drawings, such as “Two Men” (2019).
